My sister was in Italy for her friend’s wedding at a Villa near Siena. The day after the wedding I took a train to Siena to meet Kiara for some sightseeing in Siena. It started out cold and wet but brightened up beautifully in the afternoon. The light there was just magnificent. We had so…

Our first few days in Florence were quite rainy but we put on our raincoats bought an umbrella and went exploring. At least the rain kept the crowds down! Palazzo Vecchio La Chiesa di Orsanmichele St George by Donatello (now a copy we saw the original in the Bargello) Florence Cathedral and Duomo Some panels…

Kiara and I had a lovely day hiking from Fiesole, a beautiful hilltop town above Florence to Settignano. We had a guide through AirBnB hosts called Emanuele who did a great job teaching us and the others on the trip about the local history and environment. We took a bus from Fiesole, hiked around town,…

So finally I’m catching up to Italy! I’ve already been here for two weeks, loving it and clearly not had a lot of down time 😊 to keep my blog updated. Had visits so far from my sister Kiara and my friend Danna, and Bob arrives today yippee! So here is my apartment…located near the…

Had a lovely few days with Grandma (aka Gma) soaking up the rare English sunshine and enjoying the garden in the courtyard of her nursing home. Unfortunately on my last night Gma was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia in both lungs,the doctor on duty prepared my Uncle, Aunt and me for the worst but…

The villages and friends I visited are less than a mile away from Wold Newton, the village that my grandparents had a holiday home in that they then retired to. I was lucky enough to spend many holidays there with them and also a year living with them and going to school in Scarborough, which…

My fellow Celtic pilgrims left Durham early on May 15th and I picked up a rental car to drive south to Yorkshire to visit some of my girlfriends that I went to Scarborough Sixth Form College with back in the 1980’s! First stop was with Bridget and John Buckton and their lovely teenage daughters Lydia…

We went to Jarrow one chilly but sunny morning to visit St Paul’s Church with is the site of the former St Paul and St Peter Monasteries where the Venerable Bede grew up and worked as a Benedictine monk his entire life. He is famous for writing the history of England, thereby becoming England’s first…

Okay I have been a little busy the past few weeks visiting with family and friends in England and then getting over to Italy. So I am playing catch up today on a rainy afternoon in Florence, updating the blog today with the remaining two Celtic Pilgrimage trips. On the same day we went to…

We had a beautiful morning and lunch in Whitby which brought back many memories of trips with my grandparents to this lovely fishing town in the North Yorkshire Moors. We began with a gambol around the grounds of the Abbey ruins with lovely views of the town below. A brief visit to St Mary’s Church…